Tis Humility

A remark during the homily at midnight mass really struck me. The priest reflected how each Christmas is different, not because the Gospel story changes -indeed the story is everlasting – but because we come to Christmas each year a little bit different.

Each year we bring with us the lived experiences of the whole past year. Christmas 2016 was not the same as Christmas 2015…and without being doom and gloom about it, I began to reflect on what we are bringing with us before the manger this year, on how we are all different having lived 2016 as we come ’round to Christmas again. Perhaps a few moments of like reflection would help us to prepare for the New Year.

The priest remarked that this Christmas 2016 is different in one way as a fruit of the Year of Mercy. This is the Christmas Season we are living in the light of the Year of Mercy…how beautiful and timely is the message God gave us through Pope Francis in 2016-mercy! The Lord knew how much we would need it…

And hand in hand with mercy, I see humilityas a word that the world needed in 2016 in a renewed way. For if we aren’t humble, how can we receive the ocean of mercy God has for each of us? And what greater source of conversion is there that so effectively opens our own hearts in mercy towards others besides the profound experience of our own smallness, our own humble need for mercy?

On this second day of Christmas, here is a small gift – a Christmas poem on humility and the transforming power of this verse, which contains the spirit of the Incarnation, of Christmas, and of our own salvation: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:11-13).

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The Author

Cradle Catholic in a family of 6. Austin native. UT Alumna. Bachelor's in Psychology and Spanish. Master's in Counseling. Bi-lingual. Currently living out the vocation to be an every day saint by working on my license to become a therapist, God willing. Trying anew each day to be faithful to that Eternal Love that is the Reason for everything.